Terms of Use

"Congress.org" is a public-use web site operated by CQ-Roll Call Group. "Users" are any individuals who access Congress.org through the World Wide Web. "Subscribers" are organizations or individuals under contract with CQ-Roll Call Group for on-line advocacy services, which may choose to post alerts (issue summaries and calls to action) on Congress.org. "Advertisers" are organizations under contract with CQ-Roll Call Group to post advertisements on Congress.org.

Background

The purpose of Congress.org is to enable Users to contact public officials as well as to enhance public knowledge of government, public policy and current public issues. Congress.org includes information provided by CQ-Roll Call Group and by third parties.

User Conduct

Certain sections of Congress.org allow Users and Subscribers to post their opinions about issues and/or public officials. Users and Subscribers shall not post or transmit through Congress.org any material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others, which is unlawful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, vulgar, obscene, profane or otherwise objectionable, which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any law, or which, without CQ-Roll Call Group's express prior approval, contains advertising or any solicitation with respect to products or services. CQ-Roll Call Group retains the right, but is not obligated, to exclude or remove any material that is deemed by it to be inappropriate, or to expose it to potential liability to third parties.

Users who select the "Keep me logged in" option will have their personal information available on their computer for several hours unless they log out. To protect your information, you should not use this option if you are using a public or shared computer.

User Profiles and Photographs

Users are responsible for maintaining their profiles on Congress.org. Some personal information submitted by users may be displayed on a User's public profile, however Congress.org will not reveal a User's physical address to any third party. Users may choose to hide any of their personal information through the privacy settings available on the site. A User profile may be deleted at any time for containing offensive language or photographs or if it is believed to be an inaccurate representation of User's actual identity.

By submitting a photograph, user represents and warrants that (1) user has all rights and licenses necessary to submit and publish the photograph, (2) the photograph does not violate or infringe any intellectual property, proprietary, publicity or any other right of any party or constitute an invasion of privacy, (3) the photograph does not contain images unsuitable for a general audience or that are offensive, illegal or obscene, and (4) user represents and is acting on behalf of him/herself and not any third party.

Congress.org reserves the right, but is not obligated, to remove any photograph at any time for any reason.

Restrictions on Data Submitted to or Posted on Congress.org

CQ-Roll Call Group reserves the right, but is not obligated, to review all public postings submitted to the site including Soapboxes and Letters to Leaders. Letters that contain profanity, advocate specific violence against an individual or a group or other objectionable postings will be removed and will not be subject to refunds or other compensation. Multiple postings of the same Soapbox or Letters to Leaders will be removed as well. CQ-Roll Call Group reserves the right, but is not obligated, to rotate or re-sort postings in keeping with a policy of balance, reader interest and non-partisanship.

Soapbox is a feature of Congress.org that allows you, the public, to have a higher profile platform while speaking your mind about issues or elected officials and/or candidates for public office.

Congress.org is dedicated to increasing civic participation, and open and spirited debate is among the ways you can participate.

Congress.org is a privately run, non-partisan site, so we reserve the right to not publish any commentary for any reason we choose. Profanity and threats will (among other reasons) prevent commentaries from being posted.

Your name and address, while required to post a commentary, will not be posted online, nor will it be given or sold to any third parties.

Letters to Leaders is a feature of Congress.org that allows you to publicly post a copy of your message to an elected official.

There are no guarantees of any kind that submissions for Letters to Leaders or will be posted for any stated duration or at all. All postings are at the discretion of CQ-Roll Call Group. We reserve the right not to publish any letter for any reason we choose. Profanity, threats and objectionable material (among other reasons) will prevent Letters to Leaders from being posted.

Monitoring

CQ-Roll Call Group shall have the right, but not the obligation, to monitor the content on the Congress.org website ("Content") and to exclude or remove any material that is deemed at its sole discretion to be inappropriate according to the above standards or otherwise objectionable, or to expose it to potential liability to third parties.

Third Party Content

Congress.org contains content about public officials, government bodies, procedures to contact public officials and other information supplied by third parties. CQ-Roll Call Group does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content.

In many instances, material posted on Congress.org represents the opinions and judgments of the respective User, Subscriber or Advertiser. Congress.org does not endorse or take responsibility for the accuracy or reliability of any opinion, advice or statement made on Congress.org by anyone other than authorized CQ-Roll Call Group employee spokespersons while acting in their official capacities. Under no circumstances will Congress.org be liable for any loss or damage caused by a User's reliance on or use of information obtained through Congress.org. It is the responsibility of User to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content available through Congress.org.

Copyright Notice

This Service (including, but not limited to text, content, photographs, video and audio) is protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws. You must abide by all additional copyright notices or restrictions contained in this Service.

YOU MAY NOT COPY, REPRODUCE, DISTRIBUTE, PUBLISH, DISPLAY, PERFORM, MODIFY, CREATE DERIVATIVE WORKS, TRANSMIT, OR IN ANY WAY EXPLOIT ANY PART OF THIS SERVICE, EXCEPT THAT YOU MAY DOWNLOAD MATERIAL FROM THIS SERVICE FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL, NONCOMMERCIAL USE AS FOLLOWS: YOU MAY MAKE ONE MACHINE READABLE COPY AND/OR ONE PRINT COPY THAT IS LIMITED TO OCCASIONAL ARTICLES OF PERSONAL INTEREST ONLY.

WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, YOU MAY NOT DISTRIBUTE ANY PART OF THIS SERVICE OVER ANY NETWORK, INCLUDING A LOCAL AREA NETWORK, NOR SELL NOR OFFER IT FOR SALE. IN ADDITION, THESE FILES MAY NOT BE USED TO CONSTRUCT ANY KIND OF DATABASE.

Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

ALL CONTENT IS MADE AVAILABLE "AS IS." CONGRESS.COM AND ITS AFFILIATES MAKE NO WARRANTIES, CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, GUARANTEES OR TERMS (EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, WHETHER BY STATUTE, COMMON LAW, CUSTOM, USAGE OR OTHERWISE) AS TO ANY MATTER REGARDING CONTENT OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING PERFORMANCE, RESULTS, SECURITY, NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, INTEGRATION, QUIET ENJOYMENT, SATISFACTORY QUALITY, AND FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

CONGRESS.ORG AND ITS AFFILIATES WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY LOSS, DAMAGES, CLAIMS OR COSTS INCLUDING ANY INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, ANY LOST PROFITS OR LOST SAVINGS, ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, PERSONAL INJURY OR FAILURE TO MEET ANY DUTY OF CARE, OR CLAIMS BY A THIRD PARTY EVEN IF CONGRESS.ORG HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS, DAMAGES, CLAIMS OR COSTS.

Indemnity

You shall indemnify, defend and hold Congress.org and its affiliates and their respective officers, directors, employees and agents harmless from and against any third party claims, losses, damages, liabilities, costs or expenses of any nature (including reasonable attorney's fees) suffered or incurred by any of them to the extent that such are caused by or arise in connection with any breach by you of your obligations, restrictions or representations and warranties contained herein.

Additional information

For any questions or requests related to the above terms of use, or subscriptions or licenses to use information available from CQ-Roll Call Group, please contact the editors.